ACL lakeland-arcadia, FL line abandonment

When was this line officially abandoned? Track still exists (and is in service) out from lakeland a ways, but is cut off somewhere north of the new toll road they put in. South of the toll road the track is still in place, but heavily weeded over, also (oddly) the crossing signals are in place and powered. However the track is obviously out of service. There is also a bridge still in place in bartow, but the track seems to end south of hwy 60 somewhere, seems this line is completely cut off now. Why was this line abandoned. Why has the track not been removed? There is some serious work going on in the area, apparently the local power company is gonna use the ROW to cut in a huge power line and is installing the poles now (huge concrete polls) and in the process is removing some rail when its in the way. It is verry interesting right now, id go check it out before CSX goes in and completely removes the rail. Also there may be some relics along the track. Im not sure of the line was ever signaled, but if it was, it has been removed. Anyone have anymore info on this line, and its history since CSX began its mission to destroy all the raillines in florida??

Answers

I'm late to post a response, but just wanted to let you know that
except for a remnant industrial spur in the vicinity of Amtrak's ex-
SAL passenger station in Winter Haven and the portion now operated by
the Florida Midland between Winter Haven and the Bartow Airport
Industrial Park, all of the ex-ACL Lake Alfred - Bartow branch line
has been abandoned. The portion of the ex-ACL line south of Bartow
is currently active to the north side of the City of Bowling Green,
at a point where a new line was constructed in the 1990's to service
some newly-opened phosphate mines on the east side of the Peace
River. The change of track to the ex-SAL line to Mulberry occurs at
the junction discussed in the previous responses to this thread.

As an addendum to the last post to this thread, CSX still accesses a
ready mix plant just south of Lake Alfred on the branch. I beleive
that is the only portion left in CSX control. The branch that
crosses the ex-SAL at Winter Haven is in control of Florida Midland,
they service a fairly large industrial park south of the city, and
several industries on the north side...

I failed to mention the reason City of Lakeland was a part of the
purchase. They have electric lines down part of the railraod right of
way, so they are purchasing that part of the right of way for that
purpose.

DOT & City of Lakeland have just purchased that remaining right of
way from CSX for $7.7 million. The tracks will be pulled up and a
trail be put in it's place. Also, part of right of way will be use
for highway right of way expansion

lake alfred - bartow is not in service any more either... it seems
this would be the route to keep open, but then again i guess not
enough freight originates in this area that heads north to make it
worth while to keep the line open (straight shot to orlando and taft)
vs hauling the freight up to uceta and then out

Richard, there was a brick station right at the west diamond. It may
have been a combined passenger depot for both lines at some prior
time. I do not think it was operational when we lived there in
1948. The SAL tracks bordered the long part (North) side of the
depot, with the ACL tracks at the East short end of the station. The
diamond itself was right up against the tall concrete curbing of the
station concourse.

Yes, the ACL depot was a bit further South. In 1948 I was 9 years
old and my memory is getting a bit dimmer. I do not think the depot
by the diamond was operational then. The train orders were handed up
to the SAL trains at the interlocking tower, which was about 100 feet
East of the abandoned brick depot.

It was a fairly busy spot with both ACL and SAL action back then.
Some SAL phosphate from the mines west of Bartow. I think the SAL
line also went on towards West Lake Wales via Alturas I think.

And think of the manual interlocking with derails and semaphore home
signals. Quite an elaborate lever operated pipelines for a branch
line tower. Well semi-tower, it was not too tall, about six feet
off the ground level. When we moved into the ACL section house, our
first warning to me and my brother was not to play around the
pipelines. One could easily get a pinched finger or toe.

The ACL ran quite a bit of traffic through the area. I remember the
first 2000 series steam engines I saw there. Huge.... They may have
made their way from the Montgomery line as steam was gradually being
phasing out. Oh yes, a vanderbilt tender on the ACL was indeed a
rarity.

The 8000 series (I think) Russian engines on the weed scalder were
also huge in a small boys eyes. I cannot remember which had the
blind driver, the 2000's or 8000's. One driver in the middle did not
have a flanges in order to more easily negotiate sharp curves and
turnouts.

It was rare for an engine to tie up in Bartow, but the weedscalder
did at times. I would go with my dad when he banked the fires over
the weekend. Did I say weekend? Back then may have been before the
40 hour week. It may still have been a six day work week.

Memories... thanks to the society and all of you for keeping my
childhood memories kindled.

Where was the passenger station in Bartow? I have heard it was near
the "Y" and I remember it being three or four blocks south on the ACL
line. The line through Bartow (today) to the south is the former SAL
line, is it not???

The line is now severed just south of the new hospital in Bartow. No
crossing was ever installed. The other break is south of Combee Road
in Eaton Park. Much of the rail is still in place between the breaks
as well as the trestle over Banana Creek.

The story of that line is a saga of CSX fighting DOT over land
values. DOT wants to sever the line so that they can remove the
overpass on SR60 Bypass in Bartow. However, CSX wants DOT to pay
them for the entire right-of-way up the current north end of the
spur. In an effort to demonstrate that this is still a "active"
right-of-way, CSX shoved about 50 bad-order hopper cars up there
several years back. They left them there until Polk County sued
claiming that the cars were a nuisance. After some legal posturing
on both sides, CSX pulled the cars out, but retained the right to use
the siding for car storage. In fact, the hospital's entrance crosses
the track without a "crossing", but my understanding is that CSX made
the hospital agree that they (CSX) could require a crossing to be
installed at any time. Last we heard, when we were doing some
utility work for the City of Bartow, was that CSX and DOT were still
fighting. The power poles are probably for City of Bartow Electric
Dept., as Bartow doesn't have the same difficulties with CSX as the
DOT.

My Dad, was the ACL section foreman in Bartow (1948.) The line was
never signaled. There was a Seaboard controlled mechanical
interlocking in Bartow, where the SAL crossed the two ACL tracks.
The SAL East/West tracks crossed both legs of the North/South ACL
wye.

Our ACL section house was inside the wye next to the interlocking
tower.

The West leg of the ACL wye, is the track you describe. The East leg
of the wye was the track running from Bartow to Lake Alfred. They
joined at the stem of the wye South of the SAL crossing.

Regarding the power poles.... I do not know which power company the
poles belong to, but Florida Power Corporation bought some right of
way on the old ACL Perry, Florida line for use as a future power
transmission line. Perhaps this may be the case in this instance.

Otherwise, it may just be a specific easement for the location you
noted. You may note also, some railroads are selling billboard (air
right)easements over low traffic branch lines.

One example is the Florida Central north of Orlando on the old SAL
Wildwood - Oviedo branch. The billboards along North Orange Blossom
Trail near Lee Road are over the tracks.